Why Lifetime Income

Why do you need a lifetime income at retirement, a guaranteed stream of money that will last as long as you live? Here's why:

1. You very well may live a long time after you retire. Look at life expectancies in the following chart, based on attained age.
   
   

   Age	Age of Life Expectancy
   	Male	Female
   45	82	86
   50	82	86
   55	82	86
   60	83	86
   65	83	86
   70	84	87
   75	85	88
   80	87	89
   85	89	90
   90	92	93
   95	96	96
   100	101	101
   Source: Annuity 2000 Table. Society of Actuaries

   
   
   
2. This is a fairly new problem. How your parents and grandparents faced retirement is not relevant to the situation today. In the last century, life expectancies skyrocketed nearly 30 years. In the past, with briefer life expectancies, retirement – when people reached it at all – was very often a short-lived affair. Today, your retirement income may need to last decades, not just a few years.
   
   

   The Year You Were Born	Life Expectancy at birth
   	Male	Female
   1900	46.3 years	48.3 years
   1910	48.4 years	51.8 years
   1920	53.6 years	54.6 years
   1930	58.1 years	61.6 years
   1940	60.8 years	65.2 years
   1950	65.6 years	71.1 years
   1960	66.6 years	73.1 years
   1970	67.1 years	74.7 years
   1975	68.8 years	76.6 years
   1980	70.0 years	77.5 years
   1990	71.8 years	78.8 years
   2001	74.4 years	79.8 years
   Source: National Vital Statistics Report, National Center for Health Statistics, February 18, 2004

   
   
   
3. There are way too few guarantees. It is great to project out a few decades into a relaxed, comfortable, financially secure retirement. It may well be that way. However, there are risks. Among them are unanticipated health problems. A long and debilitating illness can shatter what looked like a stable retirement nest egg faster than Humpty Dumpty took a fall…and with the same results. Plus, markets not only rise, but they can fall as well. In a bear market, many retirees watch as their retirement assets can decline by 50 percent or more. And these are just two of the risks the future may hold. In short, there are too many uncertainties and too few guarantees.

These are just three reasons – but they are major ones – why you need a guaranteed lifetime income. Is it possible? Are there guarantees? The answer is yes.

Guaranteed Lifetime Income refers to a fixed annuity, issued by New York Life Insurance and Annuity Corporation (A Delaware Corporation). Guarantees are based on the claims paying ability of the issuer.